


There to Back You Up

by Imcalledzorro



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Mac, Hurt/Comfort, Set in Alabama, Stabbing, Whump, doubious first aid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-01-13 07:24:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21240377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imcalledzorro/pseuds/Imcalledzorro
Summary: When Mac is injured with people after him he puts his life in the hands of a stranger.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy MacGyver ficaversary to me! LOL I just want to take a second to thank everybody who has ever taken time to leave a review or leave a kudos. You mean a lot to me, and I appreciate it more than I can express in mere words! When I first started writing MacGyver fics, a year ago, I was so VERY VERY lucky to have the amazing wonderful gaelicspirit to beta for me (maybe someday I can reach the quality of her stories!) Thanks to Snowecat who has become a friend over this past year, thanks for helping me with ideas! Also thanks to my current Beta Booksfallquietly! I am REALLY excited about this story, I've tried some new things, and am looking forward to seeing how you, the reader, enjoy them. And as always I don't own MacGyver (If I did it would be on the air right now!) ENJOY!

Angus MacGyver ran through the dense Alabama woods lit only by moonlight; He was dodging trees, fallen limbs, and brambles trying to get away from the two men that were doggedly pursuing him. Thistles and other prickly plants tugged on his pants and shirt as he ran, and he received more scratches on his face from running into low hanging limbs that he hadn’t seen until too late. He fell a few times, tripping over fallen limbs, but quickly pushed himself up and continued his headlong flight.

Mac paused for a second leaning heavily on a tree, trying to get his panting breaths and thundering heart under control. He pressed a hand to the deep laceration on his side trying to stem the flow of blood, but it kept bleeding, and he didn’t have the time to properly bandage it. Off in the distance, he heard the shrill whistle of a train. ‘_If I can get on that train maybe I can lose them’_ he thought. With that in mind, he shoved off the tree and changed his trajectory towards where he had heard the whistle.

Getting closer he could hear the sounds of the wheels on the tracks. Following the sound, he came upon the train tracks illuminated by streetlights spaced out down the track. He was on an embankment slightly above the train, but he dared not slow down. Instead, he tried to keep pace with the train while looking for an opportunity to jump on. After what felt like an eternity to Mac but was only a few seconds he saw an open boxcar. Knowing it was now or never he starting running even harder, in his mind he could hear his inner Jack chanting, ‘_You can do it, You can do it, You can do it.’_ With that in mind, he used every ounce of energy left and hurtled himself into the moving boxcar. After a brief second of weightlessness, he crashed hard onto the rough floor. Rolling a few times he finally came to rest almost against the front of the empty boxcar. He laid there just breathing, trying not to let the black spots take over, but they did and he faded out.

_Twelve hours earlier_

Mac and his partner, Jack Dalton were sitting in the Phoenix Foundation’s War Room being briefed about a mission they were about to embark on. Their hacker, and integral member of the team, Riley Davis was seated in front of the room typing away at her computer. The last member of their team, Wilt Bozer, was sitting across from Riley frowning in concentration listening to the briefing.

Their boss, Matilda Webber was running the mission beefing. “A couple of months ago a new domestic terrorist group calling themselves the ‘Northern Alabama Militia’ popped up on the intelligence radar. At first, they stuck to whining about how they thought things should be, but now they have graduated to blowing stuff up and gun-running.” Matty was about to continue, but Jack cut her off.

“North Alabama?” Jack asked in disbelief. “Shouldn’t the ATF or the FBI handling this then? And what is with that name? Shouldn’t they have a name that’s a bit, I don’t know scarier?”

Matty cut him a sharp look, “If you would be quiet long enough, I would have a chance to tell you. And who do I look like the naming police?”

Jack started to reply, but Matty shut it down with a glare. Mac stifled a laugh, as he bent a paperclip from the large bowl in the middle of the coffee table in front of him. It never ceased to be amusing how Matty could so easily put Jack into his place.

“Now if there are no more stupid questions.” She let the words hang in the air for a beat, and Jack took the bait like Mac was sure Matty intended.

“I thought there weren’t any stupid questions?” Jack asked looking smug.

“Whoever said that never met you.” Matty shot back.

This time Mac couldn’t contain his laughter, and neither could Riley or Bozer.

Matty ignored the outburst and continued with her briefing. “The local ATF has asked us to help them out because they need some fresh faces to go undercover, it seems like one of the Militia members is a brother to an AFT agent, so they need someone from the outside. Mac, Jack I need for you to go undercover to see what their next targets are, where they are getting the guns from, see if you can destroy any ordinance they already have stockpiled, and find out who is the head of this Militia. Whoever he is he seems to be well connected and have deep pockets.”

Jack huffed, “piece of cake! Why don’t you ask us to do something hard? Like, make sure all our names are correct at Starbucks?”

“Don’t you be joking! They can never get my name right.” Bozer grumbled. “I even got Dozer one day.”

“Yeah, now he makes me order for him, it’s hard to mess up Mac,” MacGyver said.

“No kidding, this one time….” Riley started.

“Back on track people!” Matty snapped clamping her hand together for attention. “We have a debrief to get though, then you can complain about your names being misspelled.”

“Riley and Dozer you are going with them to run as backup, and tech support. It’s reported that they like to meet in the woods to prevent any eavesdropping, but we have a Riley.” Matty pressed a button, the giant screens in the War Room come on with two ID cards pop-up on the screen. One with Jack’s face the other with Mac’s.

“Gus Cotton and Wyatt Cotton.” Jack read from the ID’s. He looked at Matty perplexed.

“Your cover ID’s are of a nephew and uncle. Gus has been home from Afghanistan for a year and recently lost his job at the factory.” Matty turned to address Mac. “Just like you, Gus was in EOD.” Matty turned to face Jack squarely. “Now Uncle Wyatt is on disability, and nephew Gun has moved in to help make ends meet. These covers are supposed to make you more susceptible to being invited to join them for one of their meetings.”

Jack threw up his hands, “Disability? Oh, come on Matty how is someone in tip- top shape like I am supposed to be disabled!”

Riley snickered, “Who was it the other day that was complaining about how many flights of steps we had to climb?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about young lady,” Jack said while looking elsewhere.

Matty pushed a button on the remote and another picture came on the screen. “This is Timmy Jones, he works at a car dealership as a salesman. We also know he is one of the members of the Militia. Mac, I want your first order of business is to go try to buy a car, Riley’s is going to trash Gus’s credit, and Uncle Wyatt will take exception at that. Hopefully, this will make Timmy invite you to their next meeting.” Matty looked around at the four, “do you have any questions?” When nobody said anything she said, “You are wheels up in an hour. Dismissed.” Mac tossed his paperclip rifle on the table as he walked out of the room with the rest of his team.

Five hours later they were landing in a small airport. Matty had two vehicles waiting for them. A surveillance van that Jack said looked like a mom-mobile and a ‘rusted hunk of junk’.

“Oh come on! Why do Mac and I have to drive this hunk of junk trunk around? I don’t know if it will get us to the rental house before it breaks down!” Jack whined.

Mac sighed as he got in the passenger’s seat, “Don’t worry if it does break down, I’ll fix it for us.”

Jack made sure to slam his door. He glared at his partner, “That’s so not the point.”

Mac affixed him with a look, “Then what is the point?”

“It’s…uh…I don’t know.” Jack threw up his hands on this last part. “Let’s just get situated so we can get on with this mission.”

Mac chuckled as they pulled off and got on the street that led them to the rental house that Matty had procured for them. A couple of hours later it was mid-afternoon, Mac and Jack were pursuing the selection of vehicles at ’You Gotta Deal’ car lot. Which is where Timmy worked, as a salesman; not a very good salesman at that though, according to Riley. Mac was looking at a Jeep very similar to his own when Timmy made his approach. Mac had noticed him in the distance watching them brose the lot. He was a man of about forty, slim, not overly tall with sparse grey hair.

“Good afternoon gentlemen! Hot enough for ya?” He greeted them with a congenial smile.

Jack, who had been standing at the back of the Jeep, took the lead, “Eah, it could be a might bit warmer, but it’ll do.”

“Is there any way I can help you? Are you looking at this Jeep or has something else maybe caught your eye?” Timmy was bursting out the good ‘ole boy charm to the fullest.

Jack clapped Mac on the shoulder, “Well my nephew here, is the one lookin for a vehicle. Whatcha say ‘bout it, Gus? Ya like this one?’

Mac turnaround from where he had been looking inside the Jeep, he remembered to keep his posture straight and to act like he had just gotten back from being discharged. He gave a sharp nod of his head then answered: “Yes, sir.”

Jack nodded and grinned, “The boy likes her.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m Wyatt Cotton.” He motioned to Mac. “This here is my nephew Gus. I promised I’d take him vehicle shoppin’.” With a wink at Timmy Jack said, “It’s the only type of shoppin’ I like to do!” He gave a hearty chuckle at that. Mac had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, but Timmy seemed to enjoy the joke.

“I’m Timmy Jones, nice to meet you fellows. Would you like for me to go grab the keys then we can take her out for a test drive?” Timmy tried to split his attention between Jack and Mac.

Jack looked at Mac, “It’s your choice boy. I’m just here to get the saleslady to drop a few dollars off the total.”

Mac shook his head at Jack’s ridiculous joke. Then directed his attention to Timmy, “I’ve driven Jeeps several times and I like the way she looks. I think I’m going to go ahead and get her.”

Timmy’s eyes lit up as if Christmas came early and Santa gave him gold bars. He sputtered for a second then addressed the pair. “If you gentlemen would like to follow me into the dealership, I’ll get you on your way to owning this beauty of a vehicle, you won’t be sorry.” He turned and headed towards the glass doors of the showroom his grin never dimming. Mac and Jack followed him into his small office.

“Before we get started, is there anything I can get for you? Water, coffee, a coke?” Timmy offered.

“I wouldn’t mind water. What about you Uncle Wyatt?” Mac looked at Jack.

“Well, what kinds of coke do ya got?” Jack inquired.

With a smile, Timmy listed the drink choices. “We have Coke, Pepsi, RC, Sundrop, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and a couple of others.”

Jack’s fake smile became a real one, “I’d love an RC!”

Timmy smiled back, “An RC and water coming right up!” He exited the small space with a skip to his step.

Jack leaned back in his chair closest to the door when he was sure Timmy was gone he told Mac, “Go ahead, I don’t see anybody.”

Mac stood up and plugged a USB device that Riley had provided into Timmy’s computer.

Over their comms, Riley said, “It’s transmitting data.”

Jack kept an eye on the door.

“All right, I’ve got his entire computer. You can remove the drive.” Riley instructed.

Mac unplugged the USB device and slid it into his pocket sitting down just as Timmy walked back in with their drinks. He handed both the men the drinks they asked for and sat down ready to get to business.

“So my first question will you be financing here or at a bank?” Timmy looked expectantly at Jack and Mack.

With a quick look at Mac Jack answered for him. “He’s gonna finance here, the bank’s not ideal.”

Over the comms, Riley said, “Don’t lay it on too think Jack, we don’t want him figuring out that we are playing him.”

Mac noticed Jack’s eye twitch, he figured his friend was holding back a retort.

Timmy smiled at that, “Great! I will need to see a license please Mr. Cotton.”

Mac dug his billfold out and slid his fake license that Bozer had created for him to Timmy.

Timmy picked the license up and typed the information into his computer pulling up Gus’s credit report, which Mac knew Riley had tanked. Timmy smiled at them, then Mac watched his face fall at the credit report.

“Oh, I’m sorry to tell you but with your credit report we can’t finance you for a vehicle.” Timmy looked truly sorry.

Mac tried to look despondent, but it was hard knowing the fit that Jack was about pitch.

“Excuse me?” Jack’s voice was raised in anger. “Do you mean to tell me that you won’t finance my nephew here?” Jack jabbed a thumb Mac’s way.

“I’m sorry sir, but with his credit rating I’m not allowed to offer him financing from us.”

Jack stood up and leaned on the table. “He just returned from fighting a war for this country to keep America free from those ragheads! And you mean to tell me that is how we repay him? By denying him the chance to own his own vehicle?”

“I..I’m sorry.” Timmy stuttered.

“Well I’m sorry don’t cut it! He risked his life defusing bombs! He is a bona fide war hero! He deserves better than this!” Jack was yelling at this point selling how angry he was. “I demand…” Jack trailed off seeming to lose his breath.

Mac guided Jack back into his seat. “Just breathe Uncle Wyatt.” He then turned back to Timmy, “I’m sorry. Uncle Wyatt gets too worked up sometimes.” With a sigh Mac continued. “It dates back to his time in Vietnam.” Mac saw Jack cut his eyes at him, but went on. “He is on disability, and you were our last hope to get another vehicle.” Mac sighed again putting all the disappointment he could in it. “Come on Uncle Wyatt, I think it’s time for your meds.” Mac stood up and turned to help Jack up.

“Wait a second.” Timmy asked a look in his eyes. He grabbed a piece of paper and hastily jotted something down. Handing the paper over he said, “I’m truly sorry about the car, but this is a group that I’m a member of. We understand what ya’ll are going through, and might be able to help you.”

Mac took the paper nodded at him and slipped the paper into his pocket.

“We hope to see you there, and thank you both for your service to our country.” Timmy said as the exited his office.

Mac was helping Jack walk as they crept across the showroom. Jack leaned over, “Vietnam? How old do you think I am?”

Mac chuckled, he knew it would get a rise out of Jack. “Ancient, think he bought it?”

Riley came over the comms, “Oh yeah! He is telling his friends about you. Apparently the defusing bombs part really got his attention.”

“He bought it hook, line, sinker.” Jack stated. “Now let me go, I can walk on my own.” He playfully shoved Mac away, and the two sauntered over to the truck they came in.

Once in the truck Mac pulled out the piece of paper on it Timmy had written, “217 Deer Hollow Rd. 6:00pm.” Mac read the place and time for Riley’s benefit. “Should you be the one driving old man? I mean you’re on disability and just had an ‘attack’ in there.” Mac teased his friend.

Jack threw a smile at Mac, “I really sold it didn’t I? ‘bona fide’ I liked that part. Mac, youse bona fide.”

Over the comms Bozer moaned, “Jack have you been watching ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’ again?”

Jack responded by singing, “I am a man of constant sorrow, I’ve seen trouble all my days”

As Jack continued singing Mac thought that this car ride just got about twenty times longer.

A couple of hours later Jack was turning onto Deer Hollow Rd, it was in a suburban neighborhood, Jack slowed down, “Hey, put your window down.”

Mac frowned at his friend, “Why? The air is working fine.”

Jack sighed, “Sometimes you can’t take the LA out of the boy. It’s a nice evening, the lightenin’ bugs are starting to come out, it’s perfect weather for puttin’ the windows down and sittin’ on the back porch.”

Mac sighed, “You know the lampridae don’t actually produce lightening. They use bioluminescence to….”

Jack cut Mac off, “They’re lightenin’ bugs, and I don’t care why or how they do it city boy, now lower your window and take in the nice Southern air. It’s as close to nice Texas air as I’ve had in a few months.”

Mac sighed, but did as asked, and soon they were pulling up to 217 which was located at the end of a cul-de-sac next to some woods. He didn’t know what he was expecting of the North Alabama Militia, but it wasn’t this nice one story brink house. The house was on the smaller side, but the lawn was well kept and even to his untrained eye it screamed upper-class. Timmy was standing in the driveway, obviously waiting for their arrival. He was now dressed in a t-shirt that had the old Revolutionary War slogan, ‘don’t tread on me’ and a pair of jeans instead of the polo with khakis he had had at the car lot. Timmy directed them to park in the yard with all the other vehicles. There was a mixture of different types of vehicles, Mac noticed a classic car, a Jeep or two, several pickups, a couple of SUV’s, and a sports car, definitely _not _what Mac was expecting.

Apparently Jack was having the same thoughts, “ya know Hoss, this is a lot more high class than I was expectin.” He put the truck in park and looked at his partner.

“What were you expecting? Mac asked. “A trailer and a meeting in the cornfield?” Jack paused for a second, shrugged then nodded. Getting out of the truck they made their way over to where Timmy was standing.

“Hey guys! I wasn’t sure if you would show up or not. I’m really sorry about what I had to do at the car lot.” He held out his hand to shake.

Mac shook his hand. “It’s ok, Uncle Wyatt understands, don’t cha?” Mac said as he elbowed Jack.

“Yeah, I guess.” Jack answered sullenly before he too shook Timmy’s hand. “Sorry for my outburst back at the dealership. I’m just real proud of this boy.” Jack clapped Mac on his shoulder. “So what’s this shin-dig all about?”

A dopy smile appeared on Timmy’s face, “I can’t wait for ya’ll to meet the rest of the guys! They will be so stoked!”

With that Timmy turned around, and lead them to the back of the house where they could hear voices that grew steadily louder the closer they got. While he walked he talked. “So we call ourselves the North Alabama Militia.”

Jack frowned, “Like that fife and drum shit?”

Timmy guffawed, “Not quite! I can’t explain it well, the big boss isn’t here tonight, but another organizer is here and he’ll explain it better that I can. I told him all about the both of ya’ll! The way that even though you are both war heroes, the government’s tryin’ to keep ya down.” Timmy shook his head in disgust. “And boy is he excited to meet you!”

By that time Timmy had led them to a large patio area behind the house, There were citronella torches burning festively around the edges of the patio area, and some small lights had been strung across the area, it reminded Mac of something he would see on a TV show. He estimated that there were about 20 men gathered back there. Two guys were running a large grill, from which amazing smells were coming, while the rest of the men were paired off talking in groups. Timmy waved and one of the men detached himself from his group and started moving through the people to come and greet them. He was dressed a bit nicer than most of the attendees, in a button up shirt, pressed pants, and loafers. He was about six feet tall, a little punchy around the middle, and appeared to be a bit older than Timmy. “Hey Nate, these are the men I was telling you about. Wyatt here served in Vietnam, and Gus in Afghanistan.”

Nate nodded to both men, “Thank you for your service. While the government might not appreciate your sacrifices, we here do. So what has Timmy told you about us?”

Before they had a chance to answer a bellow came from the grill, “It’s ready, come and get it!”

Nate turned to Timmy who had been hovering beside the man, “Why don’t you go grab our new friends some food, then take some down to Pat and them.”

“Yes, sir.” Timmy practically saluted before hurrying off to do as requested.

“If ya’ll will follow me, we’ll grab some drinks and have a seat.” He gestured to where several tables and chairs had been set up. They followed him to a trough filled with ice and drinks, each man grabbed a beer after popping the top off they sat down at the closest table. Jack and Mac sat beside each other facing the patio with Nate seated across from them. Just them Timmy came back with three plates loaded with food.

There was a huge hamburger, grilled corn on the cob, baked beans, coleslaw, and a brownie to top it off. “I didn’t know what ya’ll wanted, so I got ya’ll a bit of everything.” He sat a plate before everybody, and then set down the bottles of ketchup and mustard that he had under his arms. “I also brought both, just in case.” Nate shot him a look, “I’ll got take Pat those plates now, I’m sure they are hungry too.” Then Timmy scrabbled away heading back to the grill..

Nate shook his head. “I’m sorry about him. He’s a little eager, and ya’ll are the first people he’s invited to one of our little get together.” While Nate was talking he sat to fixing his hamburger putting a quirt of both ketchup and mustard on it then the coleslaw. When he paused he took a big bite. After swallowing he said, “Jimmy sure does a fine job on those hamburgers.”

Having watched Timmy prepare their plates, and not wanting to appear rude Mac and Jack started eating their food, Nate was right, it was delicious. Until he got to the brownie, that was as hard as a rock.

“So the North Alabama Militia is a group of guys that want to make sure that the government doesn’t take away our second amendment rights.” He shook his head a sighed after another spoonful of beans. “We see more and more veteran’s that the government has discarded every day, and truthfully I am sick of it. A couple of friends of mine and I got together and we decided to do something about it, and the North Alabama Militia was born. There are several groups of us scattered through the northern part of the state. We want America to stay free and care about our veterans. Is this something you are interested in?” Nate looked both of them straight in the eye.

Jack nodded, “Of course we do! Right Gus?”

“Yes, sir. What the VA has done to some of my friends.” Mac paused putting some real emotion into his voice. “Well, it just ain’t right.”

“And that’s all too common.” Nate jumped right in. “Now I have to ask neither one of you are police are you?”

“Why the heck would you ask a thing like that?” Jack blustered. “Of course we ain’t!”

Nate shifted his glaze to Mac. “No, sir.”

“I had to check just to make sure. We have been making some bold moves, and you know how the cops can be sometimes. Not that we have anything against our brothers in blue.” He paused shaking his head. “So normally we’d invite you to a few meetings, see how you fit into the group before I let you in on some of our secrets, but Timmy vouches for you. Plus we are in desperately need of someone who knows explosives.”

Jack grinned, “Well nobody knows more about things that go boom than this boy here!” Jack thumped Ma on the back a couple of times. “He’s like the boom king!” Then Jack laughed at his own joke. “Why when he was just a kid he would…” Mac cut him off by squeezing his shoulder.

“What do you need from me, sir?” Mac politely asked.

Nate sighed, “well son, I’ll be candid with you. Our last supposed bomb expert, well he…he blew himself up. He mixed something he shouldn’t have and it exploded in his face.” He stopped for a second, and shook his head as if to clear out a bad memory. “We’re hopin he’ll make it. Now we are on a schedule that can’t be completed without a bomb guy. So that’s why a process that normally would take a couple of months….” He raised his hands to indicate Mac.

Mac paused as if he was giving it real though, “You’re right. We have been sitting passive for too long it’s time to do something about it. Some of my friends….” He trailed off hoping he wasn’t over selling his commitment. “Well it’s time we showed them we are serious.”

Jack clapped him on the back again, “That’s right son!”

“What about you sir? Any specialties?” Nate inquired.

“Well, I was a sniper. I may be on disability but I can assure you that it ain’t for my eyes. They are as sharp as the day I was born.”

Mac resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Jack’s theatrics. In his ear he could hear Riley and Bozer groaning.

Nate pointed towards another nicely dressed gentleman, “Jones there, he owns this property, and has a pretty decent gun collection.” Mac could tell that really got Jack’s attention. “He even has a couple from Freedom Arms out in Wyoming, and I think an antique Sharps .50.”

Jack’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Those I very much would like to see!”

Nate smiled, and motioned for Timmy to come back over to their table. Ever since he had gotten his own plate he had sat near them looking eager to help out. “Gus, Timmy can show you to Pat. Right now he is in charge, and can better explain what is needed. I’ll go collect Jones, and we can go see the gun collection.”

Both men nodded and after throwing away their plates Mac went off after Timmy while Jack followed Nate.

Evening was fully upon them and the path down in the woods was almost too dark to make out. “I wish I had remembered to grab some flashlights.” Timmy said to Mac as he walked a couple of paces behind him. “If they don’t have any down here I’ll run to the house and grab some for us. I’m so glad that Nate likes you and Wyatt, ya’ll seem like real nice guys.”

Mac would have enjoyed the little stroll down the darkened path, if Timmy hadn’t been talking the whole time, he made a few noises of agreement, which seemed to spur Timmy on. They finally reached a clearing where a few more of the tables, like the ones where they had eaten supper on, were laid out along the edge with an assortment of items laid on and around them. An outbuilding stood at the far edge. Two men were standing at the table finishing their plates of food. They were dressed more like what Mac had expected, with scuffed boots, well worn jeans, dirty faded t-shirt with cutout arm holes, and an old baseball hat to finish the look off.

“This here is Jake and Justin.” Timmy said by way of introduction. “Nate sent Gus here to meet Pat and help him with the.” He pantomimed an explosion.

One of the two hitched a thumb over his shoulder, “Pat’s off watering a tree.”

Timmy nodded, busily shifting from foot to foot. “So ya’ll got any flashlights down here?”

“Naw.” Replied either Justin or Jake.

“I’mma gonna go grab us some from the house. It’s gettin dark out here.” With that Timmy scurried off down the path.

“Pussy.” Spat the one who hadn’t answered before. Then turning to Mac he looked him over. “So what ‘ch doin here?”

“Mr. Nate asked me to come down here and see if I could be of assistance to you. I used to work with explosives when I was in the Army.” Mac answered evenly. These were the type of men that if they saw an ounce of fear they would lose all respect. When he announced that he had been in the Army their expression changed from one of suspicion to one of comprehension.

“What area did you work?” Asked the one who had called Timmy a pussy. “I’m Jake by the way.” He pointed at the other guy. “There here is my cousin Justin. Our moms thought it hilarious to give us similar sounding names.”

Out of the dark a voice said, “Oh, he would know about weird names. Well wouldn’t you Angus?”

Mac stiffened. That voice sounded familiar, and had called him by his real name, who was he?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did ya'll hear the good news? MacGyver got a full season! YAY!!! So to celebrate here is a new chapter! With thanks to Booksfallquietly for the beta. As always I don't own MacGyver, please take a second to let me know what you think of this! Thanks!

Stepping into the light Mac immediately recognized Patrick Fuller, a guy he had went to school with back in Mission City. _What the heck is he doing here?_ He wondered, then he remembered Penny Parker had said something about how he had went to work for NASA. And NASA had a location in Huntsville, it was ‘Rocket City’ after all.

“I went to school with Angus here.” Patrick told Jake and Justin as he continued into the clearing.

Justin frowned, “Timmy told us his name was Gus.”

“It is.” Mac said firmly. He hoped he could salvage this. “In school I went by Angus, but after I graduated I shortened it to Gus.”

Patrick continued advancing to where the three of them stood. “I would almost believe that, but I’ve talked to Donnie Sandoz not too long ago, and he told me that you and Bozer were now working for a government agency.”

Once Patrick mentioned Donnie, Mac started calculating his chances of getting away, and every second he stood there they were lessening. So without saying a word he took off hoping to evade the three men at least long enough to warn Jack to get out of there. He almost made it, but Patrick was quicker than he looked and tackled Mac to the ground before he had hardly gotten ten steps.

“Get out.” Mac said quietly and urgently, while Jake and Justin reached him and pulled him to his feet, each cousin holding an arm.

“What’s going on Mac?” Riley’s voice came over his comms. “Do you need help?”

“Go away!” Mac meant the order for Jack but Patrick thought he was talking to him.

“Sorry champ, it’s not going to be that easy.” Patrick walked towards one of the tables holding an array of items. “Hold him good boys, he’s not going to like what’s coming.”

“Mac cough once if you want me to get out of here, twice if you need me to come rescue you.” Mac wanted desperately for Jack to come to his aid, but he knew it would be a long shot that would probably end up with Jack right beside him so he coughed once.

“I read ya brother. You just hang tight, and I’ll come back with a tac team if I haven’t heard from you in an hour. Cough again if that’s ok.” Jack ordered.

Mac could tell from his friend voice that he was worried. So Mac again coughed once more. Mentally preparing himself for the beating he knew was coming. With Jack on his way out, Mac could now concentrate on Patrick. Patrick had selected a dagger from the table. Despite the dark the dagger which looked to be about 8 inches long, glittered indicating that it was well cared for and dangerously sharp.

Patrick held it up for Mac to see, “I found this beauty in a pawn shop. I haven’t had any use for it until now.” He transferred it to his left hand and went to stand right in from of Mac. Addressing Justin and Jake he said, “This little punk used to try to beat me at everything back in school. He wasn’t happy until he had stripped every last one of my academic honors.”

Mac protested, “I did.…” He was cut off by a fist to the face, which snapped his face to the right.”

“I’m talking now!” Patrick said coldly. “You are listening.” He paced back and forth in front of Mac clearly agitated. Mac thought about trying to verbally bait him like Jack usually did, but he didn’t want to be stabbed by that sword. Finally Patrick stopped pacing and stood in front of him, “You took everything from me! My family, my academic awards, and the girl! All Uncle Arthur could take about was Angus MacGyver. How talented he was. How smart he was. How kind he was.” He yelled gesturing wildly with his arms, dagger still clutched I his right hand. “Every single family get together I got to hear this, because he thought we were friends. ‘_Two bright young scientists like yourselves should build each other up’_ he would say. Too bad I hated your guts. Everybody was so nice to you because your mom had died and your dad took off for parts unknowns, well boo-hoo, lots of people have a crappy home life.”

By this time Mac physically had to bite his tongue not to talk back, it wasn’t his fault that he excelled in academics, and that Mr. Ericson liked him!

“And then the science fairs! Until you come along I always got first place! But ever since you skipped those two grades you have been a pain in my ass!” Patrick yelled the last part in Mac’s face. With a guttural yell he started pacing again, gesturing wildly as he spoke. “Then when I had finally worked up the courage to ask out Penny Parker, she told me that she was already dating you! You had beaten me again!” Patrick again ended his sentence with a yell directly into Mac’s face. “When you went to MIT it was a blessing that I didn’t get in, instead I went to CalTech, eventually getting a job with NASA.” Patrick stopped in front of Mac again much calmer now, “But none of that matters, all that matters is that you’re a government agent who was spying on us.” Patrick paused a moment as if to see if Mac would say something. “See you didn’t even bother trying to deny it.” He shook his head. “Oh well.” Then he swung his fist at Mac’s face. The blow glanced off Mac’s cheekbone.

Justin and Jake held him tighter as Patrick dropped the sword and pummeled Mac with his fists. A blow to the right eye had his skin splitting and blood ran down his face, another blow to his mouth split his lip, filling his mouth with blood. Mac decided to spit his mouthful of blood right on Patrick’s shirt.

“Oh you sunna of a …” Mac couldn’t hear the rest of Patrick’s diatribe because Patrick punched him hard in the stomach, all the wind left his lungs, he almost threw up the supper he just ate, and he could hear his heart beating in his ears. Jake and Justin were the only things keeping him on his feet. When he finally straightened up Patrick looked Mac straight in the eyes.

“You are going to regret doing that.” With that Patrick stabbed him in the left side, but instead of it going straight through Patrick misjudged where Mac’s side was and cut a deep gouge across his side.

Mac nearly screamed from the pain, he tried to pull away, but the cousins were holding him tight. He knew that if he had any chance at survival that he had to escape _soon_! He tried to bring his shuttery breathing under control.

Then from a distance they heard a call, “Hey Pat! I brought you those flashlights. I could only find three…”

When Timmy had called out to them Patrick was momentary distracted, but that was all Mac needed. He kicked Patrick as hard as he could right in the crotch, making the man fall down to the ground in wordless agony. Then he let himself go slack and the cousins lost their hold on him he quickly grabbed a fence post and swung it like a baseball bat hitting Justin in the back and he went down right on top of Jake. Then Mac took off down into the woods, eventually ending up on a railcar.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mac could hear sound before he was really awake.

“Hey Boss, yeah I.” Mac heard a grunt, then. “Sorry, we found him.” A pause. “I think he’s still alive, but there’s a lot of blood.” Another pause. “I don’t want to touch him if he’s dead! Jake ya do it!” The sound of shuffling feet. “Wait, I see his chest movin’ so yeah, he’s alive. All right will do. Bye. Jake, the Boss said to patch him up if we could. Boss is mighty pissed at ole Pat for doin this to…whatever his name is.”

“Why do we gotta patch him up?” Jake responded in a whiny tone.

“Why do you think dipstick? Cause they want to question him, if he’s dead he can’t talk! I swear I didn’t think I hit you that hard as a kid.”

The voices of Jake and Justin faded out, and Mac chanced opening his eyes to see what they were doing, but only his right eye would open. His left eye was swelled shut. They were at the other end of the box car rummaging around in the boxes that were stacked along the back wall. Mac assumed they were trying to find something to patch him up with. He had a decision to make; continue to pretend to be unconscious and let them patch him up, with the possibility of them overpowering him and taking him in. Or make a run for it now, and jump out of a moving train. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket which made him think ‘_What would Jack do?’_ It seemed that his thoughts had been answered when he felt the train slow down. He quickly decided the best course of action was to wait until the train started to speed up again then jump and hope for the best. He started slowly moving towards the open boxcar door, scooting his body along. He could hear the train’s horn announcing a crossing.

“How many of these stupid crossings does this train go through?” gripped one of the cousins.

“Shut up and keep lookin’ for bandages and shit.” The other replied.

Mac had almost made it to the door when one of the cousins happen to turn his way, “Oh shit, he’s escapin’!”

Without any time to stand up and properly jump, Mac threw himself out of the boxcar trying to relax his body so the impact wouldn’t hurt as much. He landed with a thud, and started rolling down the slight hill sliding to rest on a pile of leaves. He laid there for a second, but figured that the cousins would soon be after him. He carefully pushed himself up and noticed that the stab would had reopened and was bleeding sluggishly again. Gritting his teeth he tried to put pressure on it, and as quickly as he could started making his way to the top of the hill. One foot in front of the other was his motto at that second, or as Jack would say ‘just keep moving’

He finally reached the top of the hill, the woods ended at a small parking lot next to some sort of building. He was struggling to just stay upright, and was pretty sure that he could hear the voices of the cousins behind him. With that in mind Mac decided that his best course of action was to hide in the back of one of the cars, and hope that Jack would find him soon. He tried to open a few cars, but they were locked. He got lucky when the third one, a white SUV crossover, backdoor opened. He climbed into the floorboard, not wanting to be seen or to get blood all over the place. He could feel sweat pouring down his face, and his vision was tunneling. He knew that he was going to pass out at any minute, but he had to close the door. Once he accomplished that he leaned against the seat and passed out cold.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rosie Evans was having a horrible day and it wasn’t even seven in the morning yet. She stifled a yawn as she pushed the door open and headed to her car. She was ready to get some much needed caffeine before she had to head to work. It had been her night to sit with her grandmother at the assisted living facility she was at, and Rosie never slept good on those nights. As she made her way to the car she straightened her work scrubs, and pulled her hair into a ponytail. With a sigh she grabbed the door and opened it realizing a second later that she had forgotten to lock the car, _again_. She could just hear her grandpa lecturing her about car safety, and how you should never leave her car unlocked. She missed the old guy. She slotted the key into the ignition, it coughed once then sputtered to life.

“Good girl!” She crooned petting the steering wheel. “If you behave I’ll even get you some more gas later today!” With a laugh she pushed it into reverse and almost backed over two rednecks roaming through the parking lot. She had half a mind to yell at them, but her grandpa’s voice was still lingering in her head admonishing her to ‘_treat others how you would like to be treated’_. With a sigh she put the vehicle into drive and took off to go enable her coffee addiction. She pulled onto the highway with no problem at that time of the morning, and was about to cruse by her place of employment when she heard something. She did not just hear something in the back seat, did she?

“Help me, please.” It was hardly more than a whisper, but this time she clearly heard it. Trying not to have a wreck she quickly pulled into the parking lot at her work. She turned around and there in the back floorboard was some dude with blood and dirt all over him. His face was all scratched up with one eye swollen shut, a bruise that covered the left side of his face and streaks of mud over all over. She was in total shock. She could feel her mouth quivering.

Seeing the state he was in finally got through to her, “Oh crap, sure. Um, I’ll. I’ll head to the hospital, now!” She knew she was muttering, but there was a bleeding dude in the back of her car!

“No hospital.” Even though it was still a whisper she could tell it was an order. She glanced back and saw that the previously half opened eyes were now completely closed. _Shit, what to do what to do?_ She thought. Her parents house where she was currently living was out, no hospital, or clinic. Then it dawned on her, her grandparents old house! She was the only one who had a key, and it had all sorts of medical bandages, it just required her to use them. With her mind made up she quickly got back on the road determined to get there as quick as humanly possible.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Dang it Jake! What if he was in that car that just drove away?” Justin yelled at his dimwitted cousin.

Jake just glared at him, “What should I have done, jumped in front of her SUV and say ‘excuse me ma’am, we’re looking for a man beat all to hell, our Boss wants to have a chat with him.”

Justin shook his head, “It would be better than having to call the Boss again and say that we’ve lost him. I mean this parking lot is the only place he could’ve gone, but I don’t see him do you?”

“No.” Came the sullen reply.

“Ok then, I’m gonna call the Boss.” Neither man knew who their mysterious Boss was. Only Mr. Nate had ever met them, heck they didn’t even know if the Boss was a dude or chick, but Justin figured it had to be a guy, ‘cause most chicks he knew weren’t that smart. With a grimace of displeasure he dialed the number that Mr. Nate had given him, putting it on speaker phone so that Jake could hear too.

“Yes”, the computer modulated voice answered.

“Hey Boss. I’ve got some bad news.” Justin paused, and when the Boss didn’t say anything he continued. “We lost him. He jumped out of the railcar when we weren’t lookin’, and managed to escape for now.” He paused again, but got more silence. “We tracked him down to this parkin’ lot we’re standin’ in right now, but I ain’t seen hide nor hair of him.”

“Do you have the Uber app?”

The question knocked Justin for a loop, he mouthed the word Uber to Jake.

Jake answered, “That taxi thing.”

“No we don’t”

Another bout of silence, “A car will come to pick you up and take you to a car lot, a car will be waiting for you there. Call me then and I’ll give you further instructions.” Then the line went dead.

“Well that went better than I thought!” Jake said brightly.

Justin resisted the urge to throw the phone, this was not a good start to their chase. With a sigh he walked over to the sidewalk and sat down to wait for the taxi.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jack shook his head as he exited the local police station, and headed to where Bozer had parked the van. He couldn’t believe he had had to spend the night in jail. As he had been heading to the exit after Mac had called the mission off, the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation raided the place scooping him up in the process. The ALEA didn’t believe his claims of being a federal agent, and he was sent to lockup, but they at least put him in a different part of the jail. Now, twelve long hours later Matty must have finally worked her magic and he was sprung. Since he hadn’t been able to get update about Mac, he hoped his friend was sitting in the back with Riley. Sliding the back door open, he discovered it was just Riley and Bozer.

“Where’s Mac?” Was his first question as he closed the door and had a seat beside Riley.

Bozer passed a ten dollar bill back to Riley. She held it up smirking, “Told you I knew Jack better.” She said smugly. Then after stuffing the money in her pocket she turned to Jack. “We’ve been tracking his phone and it’s about 150 miles east, northeast, still in Alabama, but almost in Tennessee. Right now he’s been in the same spot for about an hour or so.” Riley reported looking at her screen.

“Why are ya’ll still here? And how did he get so far away?” Jack questioned with anger in him voice.

“ Matty told us to stay with you, none of us though it would take this long. I’m pretty sure Mac jumped on a train, judging by his phone’s coordinates. His comms fell out when Patrick started beating him.” Bozer started to explained.

Jack cut him off, “So what’s the deal with Pat anyway? All night all I could hear from that man was ‘Angus this’ and ‘Angus that’”

Bozer sighed as he smoothly took a turn. “Before Mac joined our class Patrick was at the top, he was Mr. Erikson’s nephew. All the teachers fawned over him and how smart he was.” Another sigh, “When Mac come to the fifth grade he suddenly got shoved down to second dog, and pretty much stayed in Mac’s shadow when it came to academics, until we graduated. I knew he resented Mac, but not to this extent. He used to be a nice guy.” Bozer shook his head. “I never would have though he would do anything like this, guess you don’t know a guy.”

They lapsed into silence, until Riley asked, “So how was a jail?” The rest of the trip went quickly, and soon they were pulling in a parking lot at a assisted living facility called Shady Brooks.

As Bozer parked he peered around, “This ain’t very shady, and I don’t see no brook”

Riley rolled her eyes and passed the hand held GPS to Jack, “It says his phone is pinging from…” She swung it around until she was facing the woods that lined the back part of the parking lot. “there. About one hundred feet straight ahead.” Riley forged ahead with Jack and Bozer following. When they were closer Jack called Mac’s cell and his ringtone started playing a few feet in front of them.

Jack picked up the battered phone, “Well it’s mostly in one piece, but there’s blood on it, and on the ground. We’ve got to find him soon.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Booksfallquietly for the Beta, and as always I don't own MacGyver, but I'm excited to know it will be back Feb 7th!!! I love reading your reviews, they really inspire me to keep going, so thank y'all and don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Rosie turned around again to make sure her unwanted passenger was still breathing as they speed down the highway to the farmhouse where her grandparents used to live. With a sigh she blindly fished the phone out of her purse and told Siri to call Sally. Sally was her best friend at The Veterinary Wellness Clinic, where they worked as receptionists, and she knew that Sally wouldn’t have a problem covering for her. Knowing how bad the cell phone reception was out in the country she figured that it was better to call now, rather than to wait. Sally picked up after two rings.

“Hey Sally.” She tried to make her voice sound weak and sick like, so if anyone asked then Sally could honestly say that Rosie had sounded horrible. “I think I’ve got that virus that’s been goin’ round. Think you could cover for me?” She added a moan to really sell the act.

“Yeah, girl! No prob! You feel better now!” Sally said all chipper like.

“Thanks, girl.” Then they both hung up. Rosie threw her phone back in her purse and once again checked to see if the dude was still in the land of the living. Seeing his chest rise, she once again turned her attention back to the road. Turning off the highway she drove as fast as the road allowed, knowing that no cops patrolled this area. Taking one of the curves a little too fast the car fish tailed, drawing a moan from her passenger. “Sorry!” Rosie called out not knowing if he could hear her. By that time the house was in sight. She turned down the long driveway passing the pastures on both sides. When the one-story ranch house came into view, she activated the garage door backing her SUV into the space before lowering the door.

Rosie quickly got out of her car and hurried to the door, unlocking it. Her grandparent’s old half Siamese cat, Matt was waiting at the door. She bent to pet him then hurried into the house, Matt meowing right at her heels. “You’re about to have a visitor, but you have to promise to be nice. He’s pretty sick, so no begging for pats, understand?” After waiting a beat she continued, “I’m going to clear Pa’s old bed for him, so you need to find somewhere else to nap.” Once the two arrived in the aforementioned room Rosie quickly cleared off all the accumulated items, and hurried back out, but stopped when she realized that the visitor was probably still bleeding and she didn’t want to get the bed dirty. Matt mowed winding around her legs. ‘_The pee pads, duh Rosie!’ _ Turning she hurried to where the cat items were kept and quickly had to bed fixed to her liking. Bending down she petted Matt, “Thanks for the idea, now you better scram.” Arriving back at the car she peered into the window to see where her new friend was at, she didn’t want him toppling out and busting his head open in addition to all his other wounds. He seemed to be leaning on the seat, with his legs stretched out in front of him. Carefully opening the door, Rosie placed her body in the opening in case he did fall out.

“Hey, so let’s try to get you into the house. I’ve got a bed all fixed up with your name on it, well if I knew your name it would have your name on it.” Realizing that she was rambling, Rosie stopped and took a breath. “Ok, let’s get you inside.”

“K, thanks.” He half whispered.

_Good he’s awake, that should make this easier._ Out loud she said, “I’m going to need you to help me get you inside. I may be a big girl, but I’m all fluff. So what I’m gunna need ya to do is loop your arm over my shoulder and we can stand you up. Once up there is only one step up, then the bedroom is just down the hallway. Think we can manage that? I have a cat that might try to assist, but he is pretty flaky.”

“K” was his only reply.

Rosie squatted down,’ _I need to work out more, and please Lord don’t let me fall over and take us both down’._ Slipping his arm over her shoulder, “alright, on three. One, two, three.” On three she lifted up hauling the stranger to his feet. He was able to get his feet out of the vehicle and they made their way to the step into the house. “One step up.” As they staggered down the hallway she realized that he was taller than her own stature of five foot five. As they progressed down the hallway she noticed that he leaned on her more and more for support, _‘Lord, please give us the strength to make it to the bed.’ _As if hearing the prayer her new friend stood up a bit straighter, and they were able to quickly make it to the bed.

With a sigh of relief Rosie petted his arm. “You rest a while, and I’m gunna go grab medical supplies. OK, hun?”

“Mac.”

She wasn’t sure what she heard but thought it sounded like Mac. Stepping back over to the bed, he looked like he was still unconscious. “Did you say your name was Mac?”

While his eyes remained closed he faintly nodded.

“OK then Mac, I’m gonna go get those supplies now?” Rosie backed up almost backing over the cat who had come to investigate the commotion. “Come on Matt, let’s leave Mac alone. I bet he’s hurting pretty bad right now.” She first darted into the small bathroom right beside the bedroom, grabbed a couple of washcloths, a basin for water, and some mild soap. Then went to the larger bathroom on the other end of the house where all the medical supplies had been kept. Yanking open the bathroom closet door she started grabbing all the supplies. Bandage, sears, gauze, disinfectant, antibiotic cream, steri-strips, and anything else that they might even remotely need including: some sanitary pads that had been there for a while. With a giggle, she thought, ‘_Hey in Girl Scouts they taught us they could be used for a large wound_”. With the medkit ready she deposited it in the bedroom and retrieved the basin filled with warm water and a bit of disinfectant.

With everything ready to go she bowed her head and said a little prayer, ’_Dear Lord, please help heal Mac, and let my hands be hands of healing. Amen._.” Setting down the warm water on the bedside table she dropped a washcloth in it. Approaching the bed, “Hey, Mac. I’m going to turn you over so we can get those clothes off you and see about all your wounds. Is that ok?”

Rosie bit her lip trying to project confidence while inside she was a nervous wreck. Not wanting Mac to know how woefully unprepared for this she was she called upon all the medical knowledge she had which came from a medical class back in high school and a love of medical shows. ‘_what could go wrong? Everything.’_

Taking a deep breath she asked herself, ‘_what would Hank do? Hank might be a fictional doctor from Royal Pains, but he was one heck of a doctor, if I can do what he did, we should be ok!’_

“Hey Mac, I’m going to shift you onto your back.” Mac moaned a few times, but that had been about it. Once he was laid out flat she addressed him again, “Mac, I’m going to take your shirts off now.” She didn’t think she could manhandle him enough to get them off in one piece, so she used the trauma sheers and cut both his t-shirt and the button-up he had on over the t-shirt off. The t-shirt was stuck to his side where blood had adhered the fabric to his skin. Getting the wet washcloth she gently wet the whole area where the blood had coagulated, then pulled the shirt gently but firmly until it started to come to lose.

“Oh my Lord!” she couldn’t help exclaiming when she saw the extent of the wound; it looked like someone had tried to slice him in two. “Bless your heart!” With the shirt out of the way, she could see the full damage to his chest. Besides for the slice on his side, which had started sluggishly bleeding again, he was free from any other bleeding wounds, but there were several spots of bruising and other red marks scattered around his pale chest. _‘How do you check for broken ribs again? I remember how to check for pelvis fracture, but not rib fractures’_. Looking up higher on his chest she noticed a huge bruise that was spread over his right shoulder. Rosie hated to touch it, but wanted to make sure that noting was budging or hot. Gently she palpated the area, not finding anything that concerned her.

Rosie supposed that she would have to take his pants and shoes off too, but first, she figured that she needed to stop the bleeding. Since the wound curved around his side she tried to prop him up on his left side a little, then she grabbed the peroxide. “Hey Mac, I’m about to pour some disinfectant on this cut. It will probably hurt, I’m sorry!” With that she poured a little peroxide into the wound, quickly moping up what came out with a washcloth.

Mac moaned and tried to curl up.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She repeated as she poured more of the peroxide into the wound making sure it was thoroughly cleaned out.

Mac moaned with each pour of the peroxide, but after curling on his side, he didn’t move anymore. Rosie was sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing, but it was easier on her. While she cleaned out the wound she talked to Mac.

“So my name is Rosie, this was my grandparent’s house. Well, it still is my grandmother’s, my grandpa was the only one who died. Well then Grands had a stroke, so now she’s at the assisted living facility. The same one I picked you up at. Or did you pick me out? I’m not sure about the syntax of that.” While she had been talking she had finished cleaning the wound, which was bleeding much more freely now. Looking at her bandaging options she figured that the pad was probably the best option. It was as long as the cut, sterile, and made to collect blood.

“Hey Mac, I’m just going to bandage this, then we’ll check your lower body for any injures you might be hiding from me.” She wasn’t expecting an answer and she didn’t get one. “So when I was in Girl Scouts one of our emergency supplies was a pad, and while we were laughing our leader explained why it was good for first aid. She explained to us that since it was made to absorb blood, and flexible that in emergency situations that involved heavy bleeding a pad was the best solution. So that’s what I’m going to use on this here cut. I hope it doesn’t embarrass you too much.” She opened the pad and laid it over the cut without taking the adhesive backing off. Instead, she took some tape and tapped it down on top of the wound.

“Ok, now that that’s done, I’m going to remove your pants and shoes, just to make sure you aren’t injured anywhere down there.” She paused for a second her words registering. “Not like down there, down there, but if it looks like you are hurt down there I will check it out, but you’re not going to be right?” She felt silly talking to someone unconscious, but if their positions were switched she wanted someone to be talking to her, and she remembered hearing that coma patients can hear in their comas. Putting her hands on his hip Rosie pulled at Mac until he rolled on his back again. A low moan of pain escaped his mouth.

“Sorry! Ok, first off with the shoes.” She quickly untied and tugged both the shoes off, then slipped the grey socks off. She noticed that his right ankle was red and swollen. “Ouch, it looks like you might have sprung your ankle. I’ve done that way too many times! I’m not very athletic, even though I tried, resulted in riding the bench because of injury.” She huffed a laugh. “At one time in my life, I wanted to be an athletic trainer or something like that. Anyway, pants are next then I’ll get that ankle all wrapped up!” She worked quickly getting his pants off. There didn’t seem to be any injuries besides for some bruising.

“Everything looks good down here! Not that! I don’t know…I’m just going to shut up about that before I embarrass myself anymore. So, your face looks awful, I’m going to try to get some of the blood and dirt off, then I’ll wrap that ankle then I promise to let you rest.” The water was still warm and she had another washcloth, so she gently cleaned off his face, trying not to aggravate any of his injuries. With his face cleaned she looked at him again to see if she might recognize him but didn’t. “You’re kinda cute aren’t ya!” With a shake of her head, she quickly cleaned up all the medical supplies and grabbed a wrap and ice pack for his leg. After getting the ankle wrapped, iced, and propped up, she covered him with a blanket, and then made her way into the kitchen to grab some orange juice and some of those Little Debbie snack cakes that they always gave after you donated blood. Rosie wished she had something to help with the pain, but her mother had cleaned the place of all medicine after her grandmother had her stoke, but maybe the Advil would help.

Going back into the room she set the snacks on the nightstand, grabbed the book, ‘A Higher Call’ and settled down in a chair beside the bed to wait for Mac to wake up.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile across town, “We’ve got Mac’s phone, but where is Mac?” Bozer asked his two friends.

“That’s the ten thousand dollar question,” Riley answered.

Riley watched as Jack frowned and looked around the woods then down at the blood-smeared phone in his hands. Putting it in his back pocket he started back in the direction of the parking lot.

“Where are you going?” Bozer called out

“Following Mac’s trail,” Jack called back. Riley and Bozer fell in behind him as they walked back to the parking lot. Jack stopped and turned looking first back into the woods than at the parking lot. Then he went over to examine a car.

“You find something?” Riley asked as she watched Jack squat by the car closest to the woods.

“I think so.” Jack murmured. He stood up and went to the next car.

“Care to explain?” Bozer asked as he swatted some bugs that had gotten too close to his face.

Jack stood up and walked back towards them with a troubled look on his face. “So I think that after Mac got off the train he come up here and got into a car. There are faint traces of blood on a couple of the cars parked near the woods, so I think he hid in the back of someone’s car.”

Bozer frowned, “Maybe he hotwired a car?

“No, he only tried to back of the vehicles, like he was trying to hide.” Jack corrected.

Riley frowned then connected the dots, “Oh you think someone is pursuing him!”

Jack nodded grimly, “It makes sense. If he had been injured and needed help he would have just went inside and had them call for us or 911, but instead, he probably hid in the back of someone’s car.”

“We’ve got to find that car!” Bozer exclaimed.

“On it!” Riley jogged back to the van to grab her laptop, if anyone could find Mac in a haystack it was her. While she booted up her rig she called over her shoulder, “Look around and see if you can spot any obvious cameras?”

“On it,” Jack answered.

She could hear the sound of their feet as they walked off looking for any obvious cameras. Knowing where to start would make it easier to find a video feed, but if it was out there, she would find it and bring Mac back.

“Hey, Riles?” Jack called to get her attention. “Bozer thinks he spotted a camera in that building over there.” Jack pointed off to his right. “Southern Smiles Dentistry.” Jack smiled at Riley showing off his pearly whites.

Riley nodded, “Thanks Jack,” He left her alone to work. It was hard to work with a hovering Jack over your shoulder. It took her a few minutes, but she finally got the video feed up. Leaning out of the van she called, “Hey guys, I’ve got the video up.”

Bozer and Jack were there within seconds and clamored into the van so they should see what Riley had up on her laptop. “So this isn’t the best view of the parking lot, but I can make out the license plates as they leave.”

“How are we supposed to know which car Mac is in? Bozer questioned.

“We don’t,” Jack answered for Riley.

“I’m going to write down the license plate of every car that left between the time Mac’s cell phone became stationary and the time we arrived. Hopefully, we can narrow it down to a few prospects.”

“While ya’ll are doing that, I’m going to go make sure that Mac isn’t in a car that is still here,” Jack announced.

Riley nodded absentmindedly as she concentrated on narrowing down the video footage. She quickly found the timeframe she was looking for and started scanning for cars. Once she would find one she would write the plate number down, and Bozer would call it into The Phoenix. Once they got back with the owner’s name, address, place of employment, etc Bozer would jot it down. They found nine different cars in the timeframe before they arrived.

“So how do we narrow it down from these nine?” Bozer asked Riley and Jack. Jack had just finished checking the cars, and no Mac.

“Well if I had an injured person in my car I certainly wouldn’t be showing up for work today,” Jack answered. “So I would call their work and see if they are at work today.”

“That’s actually a good idea.” Riley agreed. Jack shot her a look, but she chose to ignore it. “Let’s eliminate all the workers from Shady Brook, I’m thinking that if they found Mac, they would have come back here.” Riley looked at Jack for confirmation. He thought about it for a second then nodded. “So then I’ll delete three of the names, and that leaves us with six people. If we all take two names we’ll have this done in no time.” Riley distributed the names and then stepped to the other side of the van to make her phone calls. She punched in the first number which was a bank. It rang twice then was answered by a brusque voice.

“Community Bank and Trust, this is Cinthia, how may I help you?”

“Yes, I want to know if Sheila Campbell is in?” Riley stated trying to sound professional.

“Yes, she is. Would you like to speak with her?” Cinthia answered.

“No, I’ll just come in and talk with her at the bank. Thank you.” Then she quickly hung up. She dialed the next number this time it was a vet clinic. It rang once before it was picked up.

“Veterinary Wellness Clinic, this is Sally. How can I help you today?” Came a pleasant voice.

“Yes, I was wanting to know if Rosie Evans is there today,” Riley asked politely. She could faintly hear Bozer and Jack’s voices if she concentrated.

“What do you need with Rosie?” Sally asked suspiciously.

“I had talked to her the other day about my puppy Jack, and she was so helpful, I was just hoping to talk to her again today.” Riley made a face hoping Sally bought the lie.

“I’m sorry, she’s not here today, but I can help you.” Sally politely responded.

“That’s ok, I’ll call back later.” Riley quickly said before hanging up. She put her phone back in her pocket and walked back around the van. Bozer was still sitting in the van while Jack was on the phone walking the yellow parking line.

“Don’t worry about it!” A pause. “You can do this!” Another pause. “Ok, you do that! I’ll catch ya later. Bye Stella.” Jack locked his phone and shoved it back in his pocket. “So Rick is at work, but Jamie wasn’t.”

Riley turned to look at Bozer who said, “Both of my people were at work.”

Then the two looked at Riley. “Rosie wasn’t at work today.”

“Alright, let’s so see if we can find Jamie and Rosie,” Jack announced as he walked over to the driver’s side door.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Justin and Jake were sitting in their rental car in the parking lot of Wal-Mart waiting for the phone call. The Boss had instructed the Uber to drop them off at a car rental agency, where a nondescript car had been waiting for them, then to wait for their call. Justin had had to look up what nondescript meant, but now they were sitting in the boring car just waiting.

“What do you suppose the boss looks like?” Jake asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” Justin asked irritability. It was getting hotter and more humid with every minute that passed.

Jake shot his cousin a look, that Justin pointedly ignored. “Ya don’t wonder? I bet he’s like over six feet, real harry, but has a girl’s voice, and that’s why he’s gotta use that voice thingamajigger.”

Justin sighed and leaned his head against the car door. “Or maybe he smoked too much and had to have his throat taken out and that’s how he talks now.” Justin surmised. He could feel his cousin’s eyes one him. “What?”

“Quittin smokin’ is hard!” Jake whined.

Justin was saved from further conversation by the phone ringing.

“Yello” he answered.

“Can’t you country bumpkins just answer the phone normally?” came the computer modulated voice. The Boss didn’t wait for an answer. “Now that you have a vehicle, find me that man! If you don’t then the both of you will take his place, and I don’t feel like I need to spell out what will happen then!”

“No Boss!” The cousins answered at the same time.

“Now, I wouldn’t waste my time at a hospital, he’s too smart for that. Instead try some small clinics, someplace close to the woods, or maybe even a vet clinic. I don’t think he got too far. Call me when you find something.” Then the Boss hung up.

Justin looked over at his cousin. “Let’s go find us a government agent.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go! I might try to get the next chapter up earlier next week it being Thanksgiving and all! Speaking of being thankful I'm very thankful of each and every one of your reviews. Thanks to booksfallquietly for the beta, and to snowecat for the look over. Any remaining mistakes are my own! As always I don't own MacGyver. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Mac’s return to the world of consciousness wasn’t a pleasant return. What felt like his entire left side was throbbing, he could feel places around his torso and face that felt tight, and he felt a dull pain emanating from his right ankle. He kept his eyes closed and tried to remember where he was. The last thing he remembered was flinging himself out of the boxcar, then… nothing. It didn’t smell like Phoenix medical or any hospital he had ever been in. The sheets were too soft, there wasn’t that smell of disinfectant that lingered in the air, and it was too quiet, there also weren’t any of the noises that he associated with a hospital, amongst other clues. He tried to take a deep breath and instantly regretted it when pain shot through him like lightning. He gasped with the suddenness of the pain and tried to curl away from the pain, but it kept hurting.

“Just lay still, and it’ll pass. Deep breaths.”

He followed the directions, and in a few more moments the pain settled back down into a somewhat manageable level. He opened his eyes, well he opened his left eye, his right eye was still mostly swollen. A brown- haired woman was standing beside him. She looked to be about his age with her hair up in a bun, and scrubs on. He tried to frown, but it hurt too much.

“I don’t know if you remember, but I’m Rosie. You somehow got into my car but insisted on not going to the hospital. So I played doctor as best as I could.” She blushed. “But not like that type of doctor, a regular doctor.” She shook her head. “I’m gonna quit now.”

A smile tugged at Mac’s lips and he opened his mouth to respond, but it felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton. Rosie seemed to understand and brought a straw to his mouth. He sucked gratefully on the straw, and the tang of orange juice filed his mouth. He allowed himself a few sips, not wanting to potentially vomit all over this nice comfortable bed. When he was done she set the juice box on a bedside table.

“I, uh, wasn’t sure what to get you, but they always give orange juice and brownies to people who give blood, so I thought that might help you.” She shrugged nervously

Mac tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it hurt his face so it came out more of a grimace.

“But I can get you water or Coke if you want! I wish I had some Gatorade, I’m sure that would be ok? Maybe I can run to the store and get you some? What color do you like?” She looked at him expectantly, then smacked her forehead. “But I don’t want to leave you alone, you just woke up.”

Mac figured he needed to cut her off before she offered to have it delivered or something. “The orange juice was fine, thank you. I’m Mac.” His voice was weaker than he expected. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Thanks for helping me.” Mac tried to push himself more upright in the bed so he could see Rosie better, but when he put pressure on his right shoulder another lightning bolt of pain shot through him. He dropped back to the bed biting his lip to keep from screaming, which reopened the cut on his bottom lip.

“Just breathe, in and out, in and out, in and out.”

Mac listened to Rosie’s voice and finally got his breathing and pain under control.

“You’re banged up pretty bad. I wanted to call somebody, but you said no hospitals, so….” She trailed off looking very unsure.

“I’ve got some friends that will be wondering where I am, so if you wouldn’t mind calling them?” Mac asked hoping that rescue wasn’t too far off, he hated being weak, but his side, shoulder, and face was throbbing badly.

Rosie made a face, “Well I don’t get service out here, and the landline has been disconnected. We couldn’t afford to keep both going, and since I’m not here most of the time it made sense. So to make a phone call I have to go to town.”

Mac moaned both in pain and frustration.

This seemed to jostle Rosie, “I’m going to go get that washcloth to get that blood off your face, and see if I can find a sling for your arm. I don’t want you to try moving it again.” She quickly marched out of the room.

Mac closed his eye again. He was hurting and had no way to get in contact with his team. Mac thought about his options, and come up with nothing, but the pain was clouding his thoughts. Rosie came bustling back in pretty quickly.

Holding up a blue sling she proudly stated, “Found this old thing! Let me get that blood off, and then we can see about getting that arm taken care of.” She faltered stopping right beside the bed. “I mean if that’s ok with you?”

Mac nodded and allowed her to wipe the blood off his chin. “You wouldn’t happen to have any Tylenol or anything? I can’t even think straight with how I’m feeling right now.” Mac didn’t want to ask, but if he was going be any type of help this century he needed to be able to think.

Rosie grimaced again, “Sorry, but after Gran moved out Momma tossed any expired or heavy meds. She was worried thieves would break in and raid the place. Granted when Pa was sick, this place was like a small pharmacy.” She shook her head. “But I think there is some Advil. Do you want me to get you some?”

Barely nodding Mac agreed, “Yes, please.”

Setting the sling down on the bedside table Rosie again left the room. This time she came back with a bottle of liquid-gel Advil and another juice box. Holding up her treasures for Mac to see she asked, “How many do you want?”

“Three.”

She nodded and shook three out of the bottle, setting the bottle on the bedside table. Grabbing the juice box she approached him. “One at a time or all together?” She questioned.

“All at once.”

“Ok, open up. I grabbed you a fresh juice box straight from the fridge, so it’s still nice and cold.”

While the cold juice sounded heavenly, he hated her putting the pills in his mouth for him, he was not an invalid! Swallowing the pills he quickly finished off the juice box, she was right it felt great going down, now if he could keep it there. “Thanks. After the pills have had a chance to kick in do you think you could help me up?” There were several reasons he wanted to be mobile, the least of all he hated being more or less flat on his back.

“Uhhh, sure I guess?” Her expression looked doubtful. “I’ll just wait right here.” She gestured at a chair stationed beside the bed. “It’ll give me a chance to finish up my book.” She had opened her mouth to say something more but was interrupted by a meow from a cat. Bending down she scooped up a long -haired black cat. Smiling she raised one of the cat’s paws, “Matt says hello. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but his mom was a full blooded Siamese, and here he is all black.”

Chuckling at the cat Mac said, “You don’t have to stay here. I’m sure there are other things you need to be doing.”

Marie shook her head as she sat down, still clutching the cat. “I’m almost done with this book, and this gives Matt and me a good reason to sit here and finish it up.”

Mac watched as she settled in the seat with the cat lying across her lap. She held the book in one hand and petted the cat’s dark head with the other. At first Matt, the cat watched Mac with his luminescent green eyes, but after being petted for a few minutes slowly closed them and relaxed on his owner. Mac figured that was a good idea and closed his own, hoping that upon waking his body would be less wracked with pain.

It was the sound of sniffling that woke him up from his nap. Mac blinked his eyes a few times before he realized that he could open both of his eyes. He turned his head and saw Rosie still sitting in that chair, the only thing that had changed was instead of a cat in her lap there was a mostly empty plate of food. She sniffed again, rubbed her eyes, and flipped a page in her book.

“Are you ok?” He questioned softly.

She let out a yelp and almost fell out of her seat. The plate would have fallen on the floor if she hadn’t quickly grabbed it a second before it tipped over. Placing one hand over her heart she took a few deep breaths, “You scared me half to death! Didn’t ya momma teach you not to scare people like that!” She exclaimed. “Lawsy mercy, don’t scare me like that!”

Mac chuckled despite it being slightly painful. “Sorry, I heard you crying, and I just wanted to check on you.”

Her expression softened, “That’s really sweet of you. It’s just this book.” She turned the book so that he could see the cover.

“_A Higher Call_ by Adam Makos” He read out loud. “What’s it about?” Mac liked to read when he had the time, which with his job was a rarity unless he was on injury leave. Jill used to recommend some books, but none of his other friends were big readers. Well, he had to amend that Jack liked to read, but only historical and westerns; although Jack had admitted that he had read all the Harry Potter series after Riley read one when she was in school.

Rosie sat up straighter, leaned down to set the plate on the floor beside her, and wiped the tears from her face. “It’s this amazing true story about these two pilots in World War two. One of the pilots was an American flying a badly damaged Flying Fortress, and the other was a German flying a Messerschmitt. But,” She stopped for emphasis. “The German pilot, Franz, didn’t immediately shoot them down, instead he does something incredible! It also tells the German side of the war, which I had never read or even though of before! This book is amazing, and I’ve only got a couple of pages left.”

Mac could tell the passion that Rosie had for the book. “It does sound good. I think I just found what to get for one of my friends for Christmas this year.” While Jack was pretty easy to buy for, just about anything to do with Texas or The Cowboys would do, but Mac tried to get him something that had meaning, and this book sounded like it would be something that Jack would enjoy.

“If you want to look at it while I go put this plate up you are welcome to.” Rosie offered. She held out the book within easy reach.

Mac almost used his right arm to grab the book but remembered the shooting pain that he had experienced earlier, and carefully grabbed it with his left hand. It was hard to find a position to read the back of the book without making anything throb anymore, but he was finally able to find a spot that didn’t aggravate the other wounds too bad. When Rosie walked back in the room she chuckled.

Mac frowned at her

She chuckled again, “I don’t see how you could remotely comfortable.” She shook her head again, “so you still want to try to get up?”

Mac nodded, if he could get up then maybe he could find or contact Jack and the rest of the team.

She took the book and set it on the bedside table. “Ok. What we are going to do is I’m going to have you grab my arm with your good arm, and with my other arm I’m going to help lift you.” For the first time, Rosie sounded confident in what she was doing. His expression must have betrayed what he was thinking.

“I used to help my grandpa up after he got so sick.” She volunteered, then paused for a second. “Let me check your side before we do this.”

She again left the room, but quickly returned with what Mac assumed was more bandages. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, knowing that the bandage change would hurt, and trying to get up would suck royally, but he felt he had no other choice. He could feel Rosie pull down the blanket.

“I’m going to pull the tape off and see how it’s doing.” She informed him. He could feel her peeling the tape off, which wasn’t too uncomfortable, then the bandage, which hurt a little bit more. She hissed at what she saw.

“What’s wrong?” He knew the area was sore, but now other fears had crept into his head.

“It’s still sluggishly bleeding, and looks red. Let me get another bandage on there, and we should be good to go.”

Mac saw what she had been using as a bandage. “Is that a pad?” He questioned.

She gave him an embarrassed smile. “Yes? It’s made for absorbing blood, and it’s sterile.” She applied the fresh pad bandage and quickly tapped it down.

‘_I’m going to have to make sure to tell Riley about this, but not Jack because he’ll never let me live it down.’_ Mac thought as she finished up.

Once Rosie was finished she stepped over. “You ready?”

Mac nodded holding his good arm up. Rosie’s right arm grabbed him in a firm hold. “On the count of three, remember let me do the heavy lifting. I don’t want that wound bleeding any more.” Mac gave a curt nod. “One, two, three.” Then Rosie pulled with her right arm and slipped her left arm under him to help.

It was going ok at first, Mac could handle all the pain receptors in his chest going off at once, it was his vision tunneling, then seeing black spots that did him in. “Down!” He barked. He needed to lay down so he wouldn’t pass out or puke. Marie gently eased him back down. He flopped his good arm over his face while he tried to slow his racing heart. He could feel Rosie beside him grounding him. After a few minutes, he was feeling a little better. He sighed and opened his eyes again seeing Rosie looking worried.

“What happened?” She asked as soon as his eyes opened.

“I got lightheaded, it’s probably from laying here so long, and the fact I haven’t had much to eat.” At least that was the lie that Mac was telling himself. He was worried that it was a sign of internal bleeding, but it had to be a slow bleed or he would have already bled out, or it could have been a small tear that was made worse when he… Mac was torn from his thoughts by the sound of Rosie’s voice.

“Well, I’m for sure not leaving now!” Her hands were on her hips in a gesture that signaled it was all business. “If your friends are already on the way, then they’ll just have to get here without my help, cause after that I’m not leaving you for a long amount of time. What would have happened if I hadn’t been here? You could have fallen out of the bed and then what?” The more she talked the louder and quicker she talked. It was then that he realized how much he had freaked her out.

“I’ll be ok, you’re here with me.” He offered her quietly. She stopped and looked at him.

“Thanks. I don’t want anything to happen to you on my watch.” She suddenly went and sat back down in her chair, and wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes.

“Can you tell me about the house?” Mac asked Rosie. She frowned up at him. “I’m good at making something out of something else, so maybe you have something that I can use to signal my team from here.” Mac left out that it also redirected her attention to something else, and gave her something else to do. Jack liked to use that method on him a lot when he got overwhelmed by whatever was going on at the time.

“Umm, well.” She furrowed her brow thinking. “We are on a farm, so there are several outbuildings full of farm stuff like there is an old -time plow, an old chicken coop that was also a puppy house.” Mac frowned trying to figure out how one could use a chicken coop as a puppy house. Rosie laughed her uneasiness forgotten. “My Pa built like a little ramp so that the puppy could walk into the coop, too bad she outgrew it in a couple of months. Anyway, there is still one tractor left, when Pa got sick we had to sell the others. There’s a lawnmower, four-wheeler, a couple of trailers, a baler, a fork, and I think a rake. A bunch of wrenches, and other tools.” She looked at Mac. “Stuff like that?”

Mac nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean. What else is in the house?”

“Well, we have the usual kitchen equipment, with some cannin’ stuff added in. Like I already said we had the phone cut off, there wasn’t ever any internet.” She got a smile on her face and giggled. “Before Pa got sick his brother gave him an old computer to keep the cow records on, and you can’t believe how much my grandmother hated that thing! It’s still out in the sunroom gathering dust. We have several TV’s including one that got hit by lightning.” She paused. “We have satellite TV now! They used to only have like four channels, then Pa built a huge antenna out back and then they got like twelve.”

Mac raised his hand to stop her. “Can you describe the antenna to me?”

“Sure! It’s as tall as the two -story house, made of metal. At the top, there is a long piece of metal with smaller pieces of metal attached horizontally on it. Does that make sense?” She looked like she was unsure of how she described it.

“That’s perfect. With an antenna like that it should be able to both send and receive transmissions.” Rosie frowned, so Mac explained. “Think radio transmissions. My team will be on the lookout for something like that. I hope. So I think that with some parts from the computer and that TV we should be broadcasting in no time!” Mac felt excited he was finally doing something. Next, he outlined his plan to Rosie and explained exactly what she needed to get.

A half an hour later it was all set up. “You did an excellent job!” Mac was impressed with how Rosie was able to make what he instructed. He had made a move to sit up a couple of times, only to be told to not even try it. “Now all we can do is wait.” Mac felt sleep pulling him down, and just as he was about to close his eyes, he heard beeping in Morse code coming out of the speakers they had rigged for the transmission to come through.

Rosie had been finishing the last few pages of her book and looked at him excitedly. The beeping stopped then repeated its self before stopping again. Rosie looked expectantly at Mac, “Well?”

A huge smile comes across his face along with a wave of relief, “They said they’re on the way!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riley eased the van to a stop outside of Rick Bennett’s house. They could see his car parked in the driveway.

“So the car is here, but the real question is, is Mac here?” Bozer stated.

“Paper, rock, scissors, who knocks on the door.” Jack held his hand out for one of them to play him.

Riley shot him a glare, “We’re not playing paper, rock, scissors.”

All of a sudden Bozer sat up straighter, “I’ve got an idea.” He slid the door open and hopped out crossing to the front door, then ringing the doorbell.

“What are you doing?” Jack hissed over the comms.

Bozer didn’t have time to answer, because the door swung open and a guy in his mid- forties opened the door looking very rumpled in an old t-shirt and a ratty pair of shorts. “Can I help you?”

“I’m here about the puppy you were selling? I think you said his name was Mac?” Bozer said. He was holding out his phone like he had been talking to Rick on it.

Rick rubbed his bloodshot eyes, “Look, dude, I think you’ve gotten me confused with someone else. I ain’t got no dog I’m sellin’.”

Bozer frowned selling the confused buyer bit. “Are you telling me this isn’t 2319 Hillshire Drive?”

Rick shook his head, “Naw man, this is 2391. Now if that’s it, I’m gonna hit the hay.” He retreated into the house closing the door.

Bozer climbed back into the van smiling. Jack clapped him on the shoulder, “Good job, there Boz! Maybe you could have made it in Hollywood after all.”

Riley rolled her eyes, “If you boys are done with your mutual admiration, I’m headed to the address we have for Rosie Evans.” Riley could see Jack in the back mouthing mutual admiration several times.

The address for Rosie wasn’t that far away, and when they pulled up to the house there was an older couple outside working on the landscaping. Jack stuck his head up beside Riley. “I think that you should take this one, do what Bozer did.”

Riley nodded once, the climbed out of the van headed to the couple.

“Can I help you, sweetie?” The older lady questioned as she straightens up from planning a rose.

Riley flashed them her award -winning smile. “Yes, I’m here about the ad for the dog, I think his name is Mac?”

The woman looked quizzically at the man who Riley guessed was her husband. “Do you know anything about a dog?” He shook his head. “Was the ad from Rosie?” She questioned.

Riley pretended to look at her phone, “yes it is!”

“That’s our daughter. I’m afraid she’s at work right now, but if you want to leave a message I’ll make sure she gets back to you. She’s probably doing a favor for that no -account friends of hers Brittany. Why Brittany can’t sell her own stuff is beyond me.” She shook her head. “Well you have a good day dear, and I’ll tell Rosie to get back to you!.” She turned back to her gardening.

“Aren’t you going to get the young lady’s name, Hon?” The husband prompted.

“Lawsy mercy, I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached.” She laughed shaking her head. “What’s your name dear?”

“It’s Riley. Thank you for your help.” Riley smiled at them again and headed back to the van. She drove down the road a bit till she came to one of the million Dollar General stores in the area and pulled in.

“So we know that Rosie, isn’t at home, and she isn’t at work. So where are Rosie and Mac?” Bozer stated.

Riley already had her laptop open and her fingers were flying over the keyboard. She explained as she typed. “So we know where she isn’t. Jack call Shady Brooks, and see who it is in her family that is living there.”

She read out the number of the assisted living facility so that Jack could dial the number. Soon he was on the line spinning some yarn, that Riley wasn’t listening to because she was too busy accession the county’s property records.

” Ann Gobbell, her husband’s name was Olen.” Jack told Riley as he hung up. Then turning to Bozer, “They sounded nice. Maybe I’ll retire here someday.”

Bozer started laughing, “You might want to go ahead and reserve a room if Matty has anything to say.”

“Got it!” Riley announced. “Olen and Ann Gobbell own a piece of property on 217 Eastside Road, it’s out in the country, perfectly away from prying eyes.”

“You start driving, and I’ll update Matty,” Jack commanded. With a lurch of the van Riley hoped they were finally on their way to get Mac.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“I’m hungry,” Jake said for the umpteenth time. Justin swore if Jake said it one more time he was not going to be responsible for his actions against his cousin.

“We don’t have time for a lunch break.”

“Lunch was _hours_ ago. Ya know I got that low sugar, and need to eat every so often.” Jake wheedled. “Just stop up here at the convenience store and let me run in and grab sumthin! I’ll be quick I swear, and I can use the little boy’s room.”

“Fine!” Justin jerked the car into the convenience station, the front of the low car scraping. “I hate this low to the ground hunk of junk!” Justin murmured. “I can’t wait to get this over with and get back home.” As soon as he threw it in park Jake had scrambled out. Justin stuck his head out the window, “Hey.” He yelled. Jake turned around. “Grab me a coke and some chips and some sunflower seeds.”

“What kind?” Jake was still walking backward not wasting any time.

“Coke coke, and some of them Funyuns.” Jake gave him a thumbs-up and disappeared into the store. With a sigh, Justin closed his eyes and leaned his head against the headrest. Most of the day had been spent on driving aimlessly around hoping to catch sight of that blonde government agent, but they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him. He was getting frustrated; mostly because he knows the Boss’s threats weren’t idle. The Boss had found out that one of the members was stealing money, and two of their fingers were chopped off. It was rumored that the chopped off fingers were sent to the man’s wife. They soon moved out of state.

He was thinkin’ about doing something similar when the phone rang. Shit, it was the Boss.

He remembered to answer it correctly this time. “Hello.”

“So much better.” The voice said. “And who said you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Do you have a GPS in the car that you rented?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re working on manners next.” The voice threatened. “Put in this address. 217 Eastside Road. That’s where we’ll find our wayward agent. Go and get him or it will be your hide I tan.” The voice paused. “And no dillydallying! I don’t want him escaping because you and your inbred cousin were measuring dick sizes.” The line went dead.

Thankfully Jake was on his way out the door. “Run you lug nut!” Justin shouted. “The Boss called and we’ve got an address.”

“Oh shit!” Jack exclaimed as he jumped into the car, and Justin screeched out of the parking lot.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it the last chapter! I hope you have enjoyed!  
Happy Thanksgiving to all (or happy Thursday to all who don't celebrate)! One thing I am thankful for are the thoughtful reviews you kind readers leave! I am also thankful for all the other wonderful stories on this site so thanks to all the other writers!!! Also thanks to booksfallquietly and Snowecat for the look overs. Any remaining mistakes are my own! As always I don't own MacGyver. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

The ding of the driveway alarm is what woke Mac up from his nap. He felt groggy, and not as with it as he had before his nap, but the thought of an imminent rescue had him perking up. He looked at Rosie who had been dozing with the cat in her lap. She yawned, and the cat jumped off of her.

“I’ll go check.” She hurried out of the room. After setting up their little communications device, she was worried that the North Alabama Militia would find them first. She had mentioned that her grandmother used to have a driveway alarm, but it hadn’t worked in a while. Mac had her bring it to him, and with the help of a well- placed paper-clip and some new batteries, he was able to get it working again.

“Are your friends driving a big black van? ‘Cause that’s what’s coming down the driveway.” Rosie called down the hallway.

Mac closed his eyes trying to recall what the surveillance vehicle looked like. “I think so?” He called back. “Can you see what they look like?”

“Just a second, they parked pretty far back so it’s hard to see. They’re gettin’ out. Let’s see there is a black dude that’s about your age, a dark- haired girl, and some old dude with a faux-hawk.”

Mac smiled, “That’s them!”

“Ok, I’m opening the garage door now.”

The next sounds were some of the sweetest Mac had ever heard. “Heard you might have our friend Mac here?” It was Jack’s voice. Mac let out a sigh of relief, and for the first time since Patrick stepped into the circle of light, he thought that he was going to make it.

“Are ya’ll Jack, Riley, and Bozer?” Mac heard Rosie ask. He tried to shout for her to bring them in, but his throat was tight with emotion.

“That’s us!”

“Well then follow me.”

Mac could hear their footsteps as they approached the room he was laying in. Jack came through first followed by Riley, and Bozer followed up at the rear.

“Mac, you are a sight for sore eyes, well I should say you sure look sore in my eyes.” Jack tried for a joke but missed it by a mile. But even the dumbest joke known to man couldn’t dim the smile on Mac’s face.

“Man it is good to see you guys!” Jack stepped up by the bed and grabbed Mac’s outstretched left arm clasping his wrist.

“Is there anywhere you’re not hurt at?” Bozer asked upon seeing him.

Mac huffed a laugh, “Right now I don’t think so. Have you called for a medivac? I might have some internal bleeding.”

Riley nodded, “We let Matty know where we were, and one should be here in around ten minutes.” She then turned to Rosie who after leading them into the room had retreated, and was hovering near the doorframe. “Is there anywhere for a helicopter to land?”

Rosie nodded, “If you want to follow me, I’ll show you.” The two girls left leaving just the guys in the room.

Jack eyed the electronics that Mac had strewn near his bedside, “What’s all this?”

Mac tried to turn to see his friends better, but it shot a spike of pain through him, he grimaced riding it out. “It’s what we put together to signal you. I was so relieved to get your response.”

Jack frowned and looked at Bozer who shook his head. “Bud, we didn’t get any signal. Riley tracked you down the old fashioned way, through impersonating people and hacking.” Mac stupidly tried to sit up again; Jack was there to stop him. “Whoa there, what’s going on?” He looked worriedly at Mac.

Gasping Mac got out. “Sent signal. Got response.”

Jack was still frowning, he grasped Mac’s arm again and placed his other hand on Mac’s heaving chest. “Just breathe for me, Bud. In for four, hold for four, out for four. Just like we’ve done a million times.”

Once Mac had recovered enough to speak clearly he explained. “Since Rosie didn’t have any means of communication, we built a signal. We received a response saying they were on their way, and until a few minutes ago we assumed it was you.” Mac frowned, “How could I have been so stupid not to follow up for verification.”

“Are you kidding me?” Bozer said. “Roomie, you’re beat six ways from Sunday, don’t beat yourself up over something like this!”

“Plus we now know that they are coming and can set a trap to catch them, so that’s a win in my book,” Jack added. When Mac didn’t answer Jack lightly squeezed Mac’s arm.

“Yeah, I get it.” He had messed up, but Jack did have a point. About that time the sound of a helicopter could be heard.

A smile graced Jack’s lips, “I do believe that’s your ride! You go, get better, and I’ll take care of taking down the rest of the bad guys. Comprendo?”

Mac rolled his eyes, “It’s capisci, not whatever you said.”

“Pa-tay-to, Pa-ta-to, ta-may-to, to-ma-to.” Jack said flippantly. By that time they could hear the rattle of the gurney coming towards the room.

Two medics in blue air flight suits accompanied the gurney, with Riley and Rosie tagging along behind them. A tall, sandy -haired man in his early forties strode into the room pulling the gurney, with a shorter woman right behind him holding two bags of equipment. “I’m Steve, you must be Mr. MacGyver.” At Mac’s nod, he continued. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. MacGyver, my partner here is Amy.” She smiled and nodded at him. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Amy had set the bags on the gurney and was pulling on gloves along with Steve. “I was beaten up and stabbed on my left side. Then later I jumped from a moving train and ran several yards uphill. I think I might have internal bleeding from the stabbing.” Mac realized he probably sounded pretty chill to the paramedics, but he had been trained by Peña to identify the problem and take care of it and right then his problem was a lack of medical care.

The paramedics quickly and efficiently got Mac ready for transport, and soon he was strapped down and ready to go. Steve looked at the group, “We have room for one of ya’ll to come with Mr. MacGyver.”

“Bozer you go. Riley and I’ll meet you at the hospital after we’ve mopped up the rest of the group.” Jack suggested.

With a nod, Bozer stepped up to the gurney, and soon they were gone.

********

Riley turned on Jack after Mac and Bozer left. “What do you mean, when we get through mopping up?”

“Well our Mac found a way to get a signal out, but instead of reaching us, it reached the Militia, and they’re currently on their way.”

Rosie who had been hovering close by gasped. “What are we going to do? I’m so sorry, I knew I should have taken Mac to the hospital, and his side wouldn’t….”

Jack strode over and grasped her shoulders, “Rosie, you did everything you were supposed to do. Don’t freak out on me know ok?” A few tears escaped from her eyes, but she seemed to pull herself together. “Since they are coming here, we’re gonna set a trap for them. First, we need a place to hide our van.”

After getting the van hidden Jack had outlined the plan for Riley and Rosie. “Bozer told me that Mac said he thinks there are only two guys after him. We’re going to have them get out of their vehicle and come to the door. Riley, pretend you don’t know who they are, but invite them in. I’ll be hiding behind the door, and we’ll take them both down. Easy-peasy.” Jack grinned up at his accomplices.

“And what’s my role in all of this?” Rosie asked.

Jack shrugged, “Well I want you to be safe in that back bedroom.”

Rosie started shaking her head. “As soon as they hear Riley’s voice they’ll know that something’s up. If I open the door they won’t be expecting an ambush.”

What Rosie said made sense, but Jack didn’t want to put a civilian in danger like that. He looked toward Riley for support.

Riley shrugged, “It’s a good of a plan as any.” She looked over to Rosie, “are you comfortable with doing this?” Jack thought that the poor girl looked scared to death, but she nodded.

“Yeah, if it means getting’ the guys who hurt Mac.” She shrugged. “I know he’s your friend and all, but I feel protective of him.”

Jack grinned at her, “Yeah, he tends to do that. Ok, you be the one to open the door. Led them down the hallway, to Riley who’ll be waiting in the kitchen.” Jack was about to say more when a loud ding was heard. Rosie straightened up.

“That’s the driveway alarm!”

“Guess we’re doing this sooner rather than later. To your places!” Jack said as he went to hide behind the door. They had left the garage door open, so Jack could see the new car that had pulled into the driveway. He pulled his gun, checking the clip just to make sure. All Riley had was Jack’s back-up piece, and he noticed her doing the same. Jack then turned his attention to Rosie. Before she had looked as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers, but now she looked calm, cool, and collected. Something must have shown on his face because she answered him.

“If you give me somethin’ to do I’m fine, plus I always did want to be an actress.” Rosie grinned at Jack. The doorbell sounded, it was go time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are you sure this is the place?” Justin asked his cousin as he parked in the driveway behind the other car there.

“Well, yeah. I can read doofus.” Jake replied tartly.

“That’s not what mamma said. She said yous as dumb as a box of rocks.” Justin replied grinning.

“I think she was talkin’ ‘bout you, not me. Now, are we gonna jaw all day or we gonna get this government fella.” Jake muttered as he threw open his passenger door. “Now, how we gonna do this? Go up and ask ‘do you got that boy, we need to take him with us’.”

Justin sighed; sometimes it was really hard to work with his cousin. “We’re gonna ask if he’s here and if he is we’re gonna say that we’re here to take him to the doctor, we both know how banged up he was when he jumped off that train, so he’s gotta be hurtin’.”

“A’ight, you go ahead.” Jake motioned for Justin to go before him, so with a sigh, he marched up to the door inside the junky garage and rang the doorbell. He straightened his hat while he waited. The door opened and a slightly pudgy woman, in an old top and leggings opened the door. Well, she wasn’t as fat as Aunt Bertha was, but wasn’t as skinny as Cousin Sherry. All in all, she’s wasn’t too bad lookin’. As momma used to say a little bit of paddin’ never hurt nobody.

“Yeah, I was lookin’ for a friend of mine. He got hurt, and I’m here to take him to the hospital.”

A concerned look crossed her face, “Oh no! What happened to your friend?”

Justin fumbled for an answer, but Jake slithered up behind him. “We’re so sorry to bother you, ma’am. He fell and hurt himself, we got a call that he was here.”

She blinked a few times and shook her head. “I’m the only one in the house right now. But if ya’ll want to come in and grab a glass of lemonade, I’ll see what I can find out.” She took a step back from the door and gestured them inside. “I also made some tea, so if ya’ll rather have that. It’s a scorcher out today, and I don’t want nobody gettin’ dehydrated.”

Jake shot into the house like a rocket, and Justin clambered after his wayward cousin. “We’ll just take a small glass, it is getting awful hot out there, all most too hot for the cicadas to sing.” He trailed after his cousin, stepping into the cool house and throwing the door shut. As soon as the woman disappeared around the doorframe into another room, a different woman stepped in front of them.

“Freeze, put your hands where I can see them.” The new lady commanded.

Justin was about to pull his trusty knife when he felt the muzzle of a gun on the back of his head.

“I wouldn’t do that.” A man’s voice came from behind him. Justin jerked his head around to see some old dude holding a gun on him. “Now if you’ll do as the lady says and put your hands up, I don’t want to have to shoot ya’ll.”

With a sigh Justin complied, he knew this was a bad idea from the get-go. The old dude herded them into the kitchen where the two women tied them to chairs.

The old dude stood in front of them looking very menacing, with his gun still in his hand. “Ok, we can do this the hard way or the easy way.” He said as he stared them both down.

“Really Jack?” The girl who had the other gun said with a shake of her head.

“Can’t argue with what works, Rils.” Jack replied.

“So the hard….” Jack didn’t get to finish his sentence before Jake started talking.

“We didn’t want to! The Boss made us.” Jake cried out. “Please don’t hit us!” Justin looked in disgust at his cousin who had started sobbing.

“Who is this Boss person?” Jack asked gesturing with the gun.

“We don’t know,” cried Jake.

Justin couldn’t look at his wimpy cousin anymore, instead, he found the other girl who was sitting off the side looking scared. Maybe he could…. Jack stepped into his vision. “Hey, eyes on me. I’m the one with the gun. Now, who’s your boss?”

Justin sighed he knew how it worked, well at least how it worked on the movies; “If I tell you all I know then you’ll go easy on us?”

Riley stepped up, “We can work something out.”

“In my front right pocket there is a phone, that’s how the Boss gets a hold of us. I don’t know who he is, or even if it is a he. We haven’t heard from any of the others since we left, yesterday evening, chasing that government dude, Gus or whatever his name is.”

At the mention of a phone, Jack motioned to Riley to get the phone, after extracting it from his pocket she disappeared with it, and the other woman went with her. Justin was tired of running all around the state chasing some dude. All he wanted to do right now was be anywhere but here.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rosie trailed Riley out to where the van was parked back in a side shed. “So what’s the phone going to tell you?” she questioned.

Riley turned grinning, “Everything.” She then continued to the van, talking as they walked. “I’m the computer expert on my team. I’m going to use the phone to triangulate where the calls were being made from.”

“Wow, you can do that, just like on TV?” Rosie sounded awestruck, making Riley feel like a rock star.

“Yep, and so much more.” When they got to the van Riley slid the door open, and had Rosie get in with her so she could show her new friend what all she could do with just a cell phone and her custom rig. She had just plugged the last cord into the phone when she heard the crunching of footsteps.

“You got that location yet?” Jack called.

Riley relaxed, “I was just about to. What did you do with the two rednecks?” Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she honed in on the Boss’s location.

“They’re a bit tied up right now.”

Riley rolled her eyes but heard Rosie chuckle at the pun. “Don’t encourage him,” Riley instructed. “He only thinks he’s funny. Hey Jack, you called Matty and informed her of what’s going on yet?”

“Naw, I’m waiting on you to get me those results before I let the boss, well our boss, not their boss who we’re trying to find.” Jack paused.

Riley just shook her head, in just a few more…”Got it! The calls were coming from a First Alabama Bank building in Huntsville.” Riley turned around a triumphant smile on her face.

“That’s nice sweetheart, but do you have the name of their ‘Boss’” Jack used air quotes for boss.

“Oh, I’ve got everything!”

“Good job Riles! Now hand me that sat phone and we’ll get everything rolling.”

Soon enough Riley and Jack were headed to Huntsville, while Rosie waited with their two redneck captives for the ATF to lock up. Jack outlined his plan to take down the head honcho once they got to the bank building.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Janet Harrell was having a good day. Her favorite outfit was clean, her make-up looked killer, and her coffee had been perfect. They only flaw was that she hadn’t heard from those two moronic, inbred, hick cousins in an hour or so. She glanced at her watch, the bank would be closing soon and if those idiots hadn’t hauled that government spy in by then she was going to have to do it herself, and she hated getting her heels dirty, it ruined her manicure. But as the old saying went, if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself. She made a mental note to try calling them in thirty minutes if they didn’t pick up then, well she wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. Her desk phone rang, ripping her from her thoughts, with a growl of frustration she yanked up the receiver, “Yes, Sheila.”

“Mrs. Harrell, there is a woman here to see you.” Sheila’s voice sounded pleasant the way it always did, which annoyed Janet to no end.

Janet pulled up her meeting schedule on her computer, there weren’t any meetings scheduled for this afternoon. “I don’t have any meetings scheduled, tell her to schedule a time first, I’m a bit busy right now.” ‘_Yeah, busy thinking of ways to terrify rednecks’_ she thought uncharitably.

Another woman’s voice came over the line. “You’re going to want to talk to me, Mrs. Harrell. I’ve met some associates of yours, the Cotton cousins.”

_‘Shit, shit, double shit, shitty shit shit shit’ _went through her head. But calmly she said into the receiver. “Please come it.” She said in her most sincere voice.

She crossed to the door to usher her unwanted guest in, and also to hopefully intimidate her. Janet stood about 5’9, and with her favorite heels on she was almost six feet tall. She opened the door, and a young woman in her late twenties sauntered in with a backpack, black torn leggings, boots, and a cheap- looking top. Janet managed to plaster on a smile, “how can I help you Ms?”

She was met with blinding smiled, “Oh you can call me Agent Davis, and that gentleman behind you who is about to arrest you is Agent Dalton. You’re under arrest for, well a whole lot of crap, but the biggest one will be domestic terrorism!”

Janet started to turn to see who this Agent Davis was talking about, but a hand was placed on her shoulder and she felt the cold steel of a pair of handcuffs click down on her wrist! “Just what in the hell do you think you are doing?”

“Arresting you,” Agent Dalton answered. “I thought that would be pretty obvious. That is pretty obvious right Agent Davis?”

“You are correct Agent Dalton.” Then the two burst out in laughter,

“You will un-hand me, right now! I haven’t done anything wrong, and even if I did there isn’t a way to prove it.” Janet was fuming, who were these Agents? Didn’t they know who she was?

Agent Davis went to her computer and was typing away at it. “Oh we have everything we need right here.” She patted the computer smiling. “Oh, and Agent MacGyver is doing fine, despite being attacked by your rabid followers.”

Janet felt like she had been struck dumb. Agent Dalton whirled her around where she could see Sheila staring open-mouthed from her desk, and several more people moving in with ATF jackets on.

“The ATF is here to take you to your new digs. Take her away boys.” Agent Dalton shouted gleefully.

Then her arm was roughly grabbed by another Agent and she was dragged out of her plush corner office.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Mac I wish you would have been there to see this look on her face as they dragged her off. She was pissed, mad, and terrified all at the same time. It was a thing of beauty.” Jack said.

The team was gathered around Mac’s hospital bed at Huntsville Hospital, where he was propped up in a sitting position. Mac tried to smile, but it tugged on his split lip. “Sounds like I missed quite a show.”

Jack carefully patted Mac’s knee. “So Bud what did the Doc say?” He and Riley hadn’t been in the room long, it had taken time to get Janet Harrell booked with the ATF, and they had stopped to get some food for the team on their way to the hospital.

Bozer jumped in, “Since he’ll probably tell you he’s fine or something like that.” He sent a knowing look in his friend’s direction. “I had the Doc keep me in the loop. So he’s got a separated shoulder, a couple of cracked ribs, and a lot more that are bruised. He was right about the internal bleeding, so they took him into surgery as soon as they got here.” Bozer paused, ticking injuries off on his fingers. “And a twisted ankle, that would have been better off if he had broken it according to the doc.”

Mac took over, “Everything else is superficial and should heal in a couple of days. So technically I am fine.”

Riley sighed, pulled a twenty- dollar bill out of her pocket and handed it over to Jack.

Mac narrowed his eyes at his two friends, “Were you guys betting on me again?”

They looked at each other, shrugged and in unison, “Yeah!” Bozer busted out in laughter, and Mac even got a few chuckles out, despite it making his whole chest feel like it was on fire.

“Settle down children,” Matty instructed her agents as she strode into the room. She stopped at the foot of Mac’s bed. ”How are you feeling Blondie?”

“I’m….” He stopped seeing the looks on Riley and Jack’s faces. “I’ll be ok. They topped me up on blood, got some antibiotics, and some pain meds. I’ll be back at it in no time.”

Matty rolled her eyes, “Your team is off missions till those ribs and that arm and ankle are fully healed.” Mac started to protest, but Matty held up a hand cutting him off. “And, you’re not to be in your lab for at least a week! Now be a good patient, and don’t try any Houdini tricks, I will be watching. Now, I’ve got another meeting with the head of the ATF here in Huntsville, so I’ll see you later.” With that, she started to leave.

“Hey, Matty,” Mac called.

Matty stopped and turned around to face her blonde agent.

“Can the Phoenix do a favor for Rosie? I want to pay back some of the kindness that she showed me.”

Matty’s expression softened, “Of course Mac, let me know what you’re thinking and I’ll get it done.” With a nod from Mac, Matty was on her way out the door once again.

“So what do you planning on doing for her?” Riley asked from where she perched at the end of Mac’s hospital bed.

Mac settled back on his hospital bed tiredness, again washing over him. “I’m not sure, I’ll have to think about I…” He was cut off by a large yawn.

Jack hit the light switch bathing the room in darkness,. “Get some sleep Hoss, you’ve had a long day. We’ll still be here when you wake up.”

Mac yawned one more time and nodded. “You too old man.” With that, he settled back into the pillows and let the drugs pull him into a deep sleep.

Epilogue

“Oh, Mac I can’t accept this!” Rosie gushed, staring at the beautifully wrapped present that Mac had sent her. It had been his idea to get her something to thank her for helping him, but Matty and the rest of the Phoenix had chipped in. So now the gang was gathered at Mac and Bozer’s place video chatting with Rosie as she prepared to open the present. A month had gone by since they had last seen her, and Matty had finally let Mac go on another mission so this was also a celebration of a job well done.

“Well open it girl,” Bozer ordered as they continued to watch Rosie stare at it in wonder.

“But it’s so pretty!” She exclaimed. “I don’t want to mess it up.” That brought laughter from the Phoenix team. “But I do want to see what’s inside it!” With that, she set upon the present eagerly, but carefully undoing the wrapping paper to review a box. “Really ya’ll, a box!” She held it up amusement written on her face.

“Just keep goin,” Jack ordered

“Yeah, yeah, everybody’s a critic.” She mused as she used her knife to cut the tape holding the top down. Out of the box, she pulled a large envelope. Holding it up she arched an eyebrow. “An envelope to send a thank you card in?”

“Just open it before I take it all back,” Matty ordered having run out of patience.

“Yes, ma’am.” She quickly opened the envelope and pulled out the papers inside. They watched her rapidly read over the pages then drop them in shock. “Tell me this is a joke! Ya’ll couldn’t have done this!”

Matty stepped closer to the computer. “It’s no joke. That is a blank check to a college of your choice. All that we ask in return is that after you get your education you’ll consider working for us, or at least being available if we need you.”

“Of course! How could I not?” Suddenly she had tears running down her face. “Ya’ll just don’t know how much this means to me.” She swiped the tears off her face. “I’ve always wanted to attend college, but we couldn’t financially. My parents made too much for us to qualify for assistance, but not enough to send me to college without having a massive debt over my head. My grandparents had saved a college fund for me through the years, but when Grandpa got sick they had to use it for his hospital and medical bills. My grandmother always said that God would provide, and now he has.” She wiped the tears away again. “This is too much. I couldn’t possibly accept it.”

Mac stepped forward. “You can and you will. You provided me with excellent care, without even knowing me, so being able to go to college is the least we could do as a thank you! Once you decide on which college you are going to attend we’ll get with them and get it all worked out. You won’t have to worry about a thing!”

She sniffed, “Thanks, Mac. I’m glad you feel that way.” She wiped at her face again. “I’m going to go tell my parents the good news. Thank ya’ll!” With that, the line went dead. Riley grabbed the laptop from where they had placed it on the edge of the fire pit so that everybody could see, and she went to set it back in Mac’s room.

Once they were all back seated around the fire pit Jack lifted his beer. “I would like to propose a toast.” Everybody raised their beer. “You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose. But you can’t wipe your friends on the back of the couch.” Jack’s smile was huge.

“Jack!” Everybody chorused.

“Fine.” He pouted, then raising his beer bottle again. “Here’s to Rosie!”

“Cheers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope that you enjoyed this story. I tried a few different things, like with the different points of view, please let me know if you enjoyed that or not.  
This is where I typically promote any upcoming story, well my other story is currently being posted, "Secret Service + School" check it out if you want. The Phoenix gang goes undercover in a rural school to find counterfeiters. Mac is a Pre-K teacher, Riley is a computer teacher, Jack is a janitor, and poor Bozer is stuck in the surveillance van. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I sincerely thank you!


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